Crossing the Boundaries
by strawberryfinn
Summary: Jason. He's best friends with Ryan Evans and auditioning for the new musical? Plus, he's dealing with friendship problems and reveals Ryan's greatest secret, abuse. Jason's POV. R & R!
1. What?

**Author's Note**: Ok, I do _not _own _High School Musical_ or any of the characters. I _do _own this plotline. Basically, I thought Jason needed some character development because he doesn't have any fictions about him unless they involve Kelsi. So I took Jason, created a person for him, and made him best friends with Ryan Evans. (Sort of like I did for Tapeworm in _The Suite Life _and Sam in _Life With Derek). _Wa-lah, magic, Jason's a person. I hope you like it. Review, please.

Chapter 1:

I nod weakly at Troy, feeling a bit odd and out of place, holding this sweaty ticket in my hand. "Yeah, I'll be there."

God, ever since Troy figured out that whole musical thing, he's become _obsessive._ He's trying out for ever single part he can get, and he _gets _all the good parts too! I'm happy for him—I mean, he's found what he really loves, but _why on earth _does he have to invite _me _to every single one of them?

Ok, I admit—_The Sound of Music_ was pretty good, I know. So were _The Music Man_ and _The Fiddler on the Roof_. But after I saw _West Side Story_ and _Bugsy Malone_, the thrill's wearing off a bit. God, how many stupid musical things can there _be?_

Chad says it's a phase. Yeah right. That explains the fifty three tickets Troy's swiped for the team to let them come and watch him when we say that we don't have the money to buy one. Anyway, what does Chad know? He once said that he'd _never _fall in love. Well, he's head over heels in love with Taylor—never saw _that _coming, did he?

Yeah, ever since the whole musical thing, everyone's in _love, _and it's bugging me. Yeah, ok, I admit I'm jealous. I'm not in love.

I mean, Sharpay hooked up with Zeke, Troy's with Gabriella, and Chad's with Taylor. I used to really like Kelsi, but then we found out we didn't really have much in common. She's in love with Alan now.

The only other person that's not head over heels in love is Ryan Evans. Oh yeah, did I mention him? He happens to be one of my closest friends at the moment. Sue me—yes, the drama dork is my friend. I'm ashamed I used to think of him like that, actually. Ryan doesn't mind—he's different now. Ever since Sharpay found Zeke to boss around, Ryan's his own person, not always dodging around in his twin's shadow anymore. And I've found out how really kind he is.

Not that my other friends are bad or anything. But see, they've all found their own things and are on top of the world now. I mean, Troy's found drama and Gabriella. And he _dominates _at what he's good at. So now he's the basketball guy, the singing guy, and the guy who got the pretties girl in the school. (I always knew he'd come out on top). Chad—well, Chad's really nice, but he's involved with Taylor now, and he's always been Troy's best friend, not my best friend. Zeke's busy baking cookies like every day for Sharpay—it's a wonder she's not fat with all that Crème Brule he makes for her. And well, Ryan's the only free guy that I can hang around with now. So I do.

And I've learned a lot.

I think I forgot to mention who I am. Jason. Jason Cross actually. New friend of Ryan Evans, and one of the only people that is single. Which is _not _a lot, let me tell you. Anyway, I'm holding this ticket to _Mary Poppins_? and debating over whether I should just chuck this ticket in the trashcan or actually go to Troy's musical. He'd probably be hurt if I didn't show up, I decide, so I stuff it into my back pocket and go on with my business.

Yeah, I have P.E. now, otherwise known as Physical Education. I head over to the gym, get changed into my red and white uniform, and head out to the fields. Ryan's there already.

Coach Bolton—he also teaches physical education—gives me this huge corny grin and asks if I'm going to see Troy in his new play after barging in between me and Ryan. He's never really cared for Ryan—thinking he's just sort of a worthless singing kid—and Ryan's looking at me with sort of a hurt look, but he's used to it. Coach Bolton's treated Ryan like this for awhile—rather, since Kindergarten—favoring Troy—well, of course. Troy _is _his son.

"Maybe," I mutter, and Coach Bolton takes that as a "yes." He flashes me this _huge _smile and thumbs-up sign, saying, "I'll see you there!"

Yeah, ever since Coach Bolton found out how good Troy was at singing, he's become obsessive. Now, not _only _does Troy have the potential of becoming the next Michael Jordan, he also has the potential of becoming the next Ryan Cabrera! Big whoop, who cares?

You've probably noticed I've been almost _attacking _Troy. I don't know why. Troy's a great guy—he really is, I mean, he's always open and energetic and eager. I've been friends with Troy for almost forever.

But ever since this whole _musical _thing, Troy's been all wrapped up in himself and Gabriella. I mean, nobody else notices because they're all wrapped up in themselves too. Ryan doesn't care. Ryan and Troy have never hit it off so well ever since Troy told Ryan he was scared to death of Sharpay. What kind of person tells that to a twin about his other twin?

Anyway, Ryan's right next to me now.

"Sorry about that," I say, apologizing for Coach Bolton's rather _crude _treatment of Ryan.

"No problem," he says, grinning. "So, what's up?"

Ryan Evans. If somebody had told me last year I'd end up being friends with Ryan Evans, I would have told them to go and jump off a cliff because that was never happening. Yeah, his whole weird dramatic self bugged the death out of me. I mean, I wanted to _murder_ him for that neon pink hat and all the other junk he wore.

Yeah, this year, Ryan's let it down a little on the crazy clothes. He wears more decent stuff now—like _jeans_ and _t-shirts_. It's true. Ever since Sharpay has someone else to go after, Ryan's sort of come out of his shell and shown the real person he is. (Now _Zeke's_ the one who shows up in bright-highlighter colored clothing. He must really like Sharpay, going through all that just to please her).

"Nothing." I fish out my _Mary Poppins_ ticket. "Do you think I should go to this?"

Ryan shrugs. If there's one thing that bugs me about Ryan, it's that sometimes he doesn't have a definite answer to anything.

"Musical?" he asks, arching his eyebrow and scratching his chin. Ryan seriously does things like that. I always have to fight the urge to laugh. "Maybe. Go. Troy needs your support."

"Yeah, ok." I put it back in. I really don't want to think about Troy prancing around as Bert, or whatever character he got.

Now that we're on the subject of musicals, Ryan starts going on about that new musical that Kelsi wrote. It's called _Time to Fly_ or something like that. It's about this place where everybody lives on Candycane Lane or something weird like that.

Ryan doesn't know if he should try out basically. He doesn't know if Sharpay wants to do it this year—seeing how wrapped up she is with Zeke—and he's never starred by himself before. Never. This is since Kindergarten's _Cinderella_.

"Come on, do it," I'm telling him. I mean, Ryan's got a _way _better voice than Sharpay. He really should do it.

"I don't know," he says, kicking the floor with his shoes and stretching in his red and white uniform.

"Dude, you _have _to try out! You _own _the theater, Ryan! You _love _drama, come on, you can't quit!"

"I don't know…" he breaks off, looking shyly at the ground. "I've never done anything by myself before. I don't know what Sharpay would think…"

"Forget Sharpay!" I'm saying. "It doesn't matter! Sharpay's found her own thing, and you've fought so long to get away from her! I mean, just do it, Ryan. Do it! _You _can be the star for once! You'd make it, I swear!"

"I don't know…" Ryan says again. I think I'm going to grab his head and slam it against the blacktop if he says that one more time.

"Come on, Ryan! You can do it! You know what? _I'll _try out for the stinking part if it means _you _will!" I don't know what I'm saying anymore.

"Really?" He arches an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

"Ok, I'll do it," he decides. I'm happy, because Ryan will get the recognition he deserves.

Then I realize what I said. And what I've gotten myself into.

**Author's Note**: Jason's in a _musical?_ ((Gasp)) Wow. This is something new. Want to find out what happens? Review.

-Finn


	2. Mary Poppins

**Author's Note**: Here's an update. I don't own _Mary Poppins _or the characters of _High School Musical. _I don't own Sum 41 or their song _Pieces._ I do own this plotline. Dyslexia idea was sort of borrowed from Spice of Life's _Scripts and Skyscrapers._

Chapter 2:

I've gone through my head about fifty times, and _still _cannot think of a way out of what I told Ryan I'd do. I mean, trying out for a musical is _not _my thing. I can't even _sing, _unless the shower counts, and even _then _my little sister—Emma—screams and hides. I went into the boy's bathroom and started singing just a song—_Pieces_ by Sum 41, that is, and I _hate _the sound of my own voice. I can't hit a single note, and I just want to get out of there, and forget about this whole singing thing.

That's why when Chad asks me if I want to go watch Troy in _Mary Poppins_ with him, I say yes. I mean, I don't have anything _else _to do, and I want to just get that annoying feeling out of my head that I have to audition for this stupid thing.

On one condition that is. I tell Chad that if I go, he has to get a ticket for Ryan too. I hope that making him watch the musical will help get the stupid singing idea out of his head—and possibly make him back out on making me try out too.

So we're here now—credit to Coach Bolton for driving us.

Chad looks at me and asks, "You mind if I go find Taylor?"

I shake my head, "No." See, there's another reason I wanted Ryan to come. If he didn't, I'd have no one to talk to.

Ryan's standing next to me, spinning his hat around. Yes, if there's one thing Ryan still has, it's his hats. I guess it's just a habit. They're not such weird colors anymore, but he still has them. A girl looks over at Ryan, wanting to talk to him, but he ignores her.

We shuffle over to where this guy's collecting tickets, and we enter the theater. It's the same thing as last time, I realize. People talking, people finding seats, the lights go out, and the music starts. I scoot in a seat next to Ryan, who's eyes are bright and excited.

Ryan? He still loves drama, even though he tries to deny it. He's always loved drama—sometimes it's a bit hard for him because he's dyslexic, but he loves it. He sits and _pores _over the script until the words rearrange themselves and he can read them. He learns everything by heart, he loves singing—he sings so much sometimes I get tired of it. I'd never really tell him that though.

Ryan's dyslexia is a bit hard for him. I mean, sometimes jerks pick on him because he's in the LD—Learning Disabilities class, calling him a retard and a dumb blonde. Ryan's actually really smart, but when people fight at him, he just stands there and doesn't say anything, leaving me to fight back for him. Or Sharpay. I guess that's why sometimes Sharpay is so hard on people, sort of like she thinks that if she's mean to people, they'll stay away from her _and _Ryan. Sharpay actually really cares about Ryan, but it's sort of hard for her to show it. I'd never would've thought that, but that's what Ryan says. And one thing Ryan doesn't do is lie.

Anyway, Ryan's looking all around, and I flinch, sort of afraid he's going to burst into song. The curtains open, and everybody gets quiet. It's the first scene of _Mary Poppins_, but I don't even pay attention, because I'm too busy looking at Ryan. Seriously, looking at Ryan is more entertaining than watching a play because the way he moves and acts is so hilarious.

His eyes are wide with excitement and they're glued to the stage. I look over at the stage, and someone's singing, "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down." Yeah ok, that's nice.

I watch Ryan's reactions until Troy comes on, and I look back at the stage. Gabriella's up there singing with him—see, both Troy and Gabriella joined this drama club together, and they can have fun _and _spend time with each other. It's not like they don't spend time together—Troy takes Gabriella out a lot, and they went to last year's prom together, but yeah… ok, that's enough of that.

Troy's singing and Gabriella's singing, and they're really good. I still can't help thinking that Ryan's way better though.

"Hey," I whisper, pushing Ryan in the side.

"What?" he whispers back, reluctantly drawing his eyes away from the stage to look at me.

"You're going to have to teach me how to sing, or else I can't try out." Oh God, why on _earth _did I say that? I brought him here to try to convince him _not _to make me sing but… my reasoning makes no sense whatsoever. As my father says, I have no common sense.

"Yeah, ok," he says, his eyes still on the stage, talking indirectly to me.

"So should I come to your house?"

He snaps back, and glances at me, staring hard. I'm sort of surprised at this reaction. "Actually, is it ok if I come to yours?"

"I'm sorry. I can't do that." I'm trying to hide the surprise in my voice at how sharply Ryan turns. "Mom won't let me stay by myself because she doesn't trust me with Emma."

He looks at me, as if thinking something over very carefully in his head. Finally he nods slowly. "You can come over this weekend, I guess."

"Ok." I'm sort of confused. Why is it such a big deal for me to come to his house? Maybe he's ashamed of it—why would he be though? His family is filthy rich, he's got Sharpay… so…

Troy's still singing on the stage, and Gabriella's up there, and I'm wondering what it would be like to be up there, singing for everybody to hear. I'm a bit nervous. I really don't want to try out—I heard Mrs. Darbus is really harsh, and I'll admit, she's a bit scary. But I promised Ryan, so I can't back out on it.

It seems like forever until the stupid play is over, and I'm wondering how on _earth _I'm going to try out if I hate drama so much. Well, not necessarily _hate _it, but I'm not passionate about it like Troy or Ryan. I wonder why it means so much to other people. Maybe it has something to do with pretending or something. I have no idea.

We all go out, and Coach Bolton sees me. "JASON!" His face lights up and he purposely ignores Ryan again. He asks me how I liked the play and how good is Troy, and all this other stuff. I think I'm going to go insane.

After saying I have to get home to baby-sit Emma, I manage to get away from him. I tell Troy he did a good job, say hi to Taylor, and walk out, followed by Ryan.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow then?" After all, tomorrow's Saturday. "I'll just ask my mom to drop me off."

"Ok," he says, nodding. "Yeah, that's fine."

"Ok." I wave to him, and call my mom to pick me up on my cell. Ryan waves back, and it's then that I notice he has a bruise on the underside of his arm, along with a jagged red cut.

What happened to Ryan? Will Jason make it? Sorry if it was boring. Review.

-Finn


	3. Razzmatazz

Chapter 3:

I haven't said anything to Ryan about the cuts, but that's also because I haven't seen him at all. I haven't said anything, but I've been thinking hard about it.

Why does Ryan have a cut on his arm? Why doesn't he want me to come to his house? Is there something going on that I don't know about?

I guess I can't do anything about it, so I stop worrying my head off.

It's sort of hard though.

Anyway, it's Saturday, and my mom drops me off at Ryan's house, so I guess it's too late to matter why Ryan's acting so weird. I've been over to Ryan's house like once or twice and I'm not surprised when I step in. It's huge, I already know that. His family's filthy rich and well… yeah. I mean, he's got a plasma screen TV in his room, his closet is about the size of my room, all of them have a king-size bed to themselves, and well… you get the idea. So I walk up to Ryan's room—which is this sort of casual blue color—and Ryan looks at me straight in the eye and says, "We have a lot of work to do."

Which basically crashes my self-esteem to level 0 when it wasn't too high in the first place.

Ryan sits down on his bed and stares at me. There's a really long silence.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Yeah, ok, you get the idea, right?

"What are you waiting for? Sing!" he looks at me like I'm stupid.

Which I probably am. I open my mouth blankly and open and shut it, feeling rather like a goldfish. Ah, I'm sort of stupid sometimes.

"Sing what?" I ask him.

"Are you _stupid _or something?" Ryan's face is lighting up like a tomato and I feel like laughing, but it's not funny. "Here, sing _this_!"

He chucks me this script that says _Time to Fly_ across the top of it. "Ok, follow me. You should have picked this up the day before!" He starts singing this song, his eyes closed, his face fully concentrated:

_Make believe in a world full of rainbows and butterflies _

_Make believe in a world free from deceit and lies _

_It's a world that has everything… love and care… _

_And think about, how I want you there… _

_I want you there with me… _

_In this make believe world of mystery… _

_I want you there with me… _

He finishes and I just sit there and stare at him lamely. How am _I _supposed to sing that?

He glares at me. "What are you waiting for, dork? And they say _I'm _stupid."

This gives me the excuse to ramble on for a couple of minutes about how he's not stupid and he's just different because he has dyslexia.

And by that time, Ryan's fuming and he's ready to kick me out.

xxx

Auditions were pretty bad, but less bad than I expected. Sure, I messed up and hit about every single note wrong, but at least that assures I probably won't get a part. Mrs. Darbus was flinching like crazy.

Of course Troy did an amazing job and will probably land himself the lead with Gabriella. (They did a pair audition). Sharpay and Zeke did a pair one too—and hopefully they'll get the lead… not that I have anything against Troy, but if Sharpay doesn't she will personally freak. Luckily there's two pairs—one of them is more major than the other, but I'm guessing it won't matter much.

Ryan was amazing. He just walked on that stage and everybody's eyes were on him. Wow. He just blew us all away—it was pretty intense. Sharpay was looking kind of angry, as if regretting her tryout with Zeke, but I guess she's happy for him. He _is _her twin.

Then there were a bunch of bad people—including me. I don't know. My legs just felt like jelly and everything was wobbling and I was so scared I was going to forget everything and…

Well, I blew it.

But I did try out, and I hope Ryan gets to do what he wants to do. That's why I'm standing with him here in line right now and we're all trying to find out which parts we have. I'm not too excited because I already know I won't get any part.

I glance at the list for the play.

**Time to Fly**

Directed and Written by Kelsi Nielsen

Zachary Kersopolis……………………….Ryan Evans

Sean Flypzaker…...……………………….Troy Bolton

Kinsey Roamington……………………….Gabriella Montez

Tarquell Beautified………………………..Sharpay Evans

Montel Tizzingturn………………………..Zeke Mayers

Are written on the top. There are more random names scattered on the bottom.

I give Ryan a guy hug. "Congratulations." Zachary Kersopolis is the main character in this whacked-up play. What I've gathered so far is that it's about this different fairytale world, but then things start getting messed up. Zachary, Sean, and Montel are supposed to be friends or something and Kinsey and Tarquell are both with some other kids and it's a whacked-up romantic comedy. Hand it to Kelsi to think of something to write like this.

"Hey, Ryan, you ok?" He's staring numbly at the paper tacked up on the wall. "Ryan, did you get a part you didn't want or something? Ryan, what's wrong? You did good, man."

Ryan shakes his head numbly as Sharpay hugs Zeke hard screaming, "We did it!" Troy's hugging Gabriella, but Ryan doesn't seem to see any of this—still staring straight at the paper.

"Ryan, what is it?"

Almost with frozen movement, he points up at the paper, and that's when I see this.

Razzmatazz…………………………………Jason Cross

What's that supposed to mean? I got a part—good for me, I guess. "What's wrong, Ryan?" I ask him.

He looks at me with dead seriousness in his eyes and says, "Jason, Razzmatazz is the _fairy._ The person who plays him or her or… _it _has to dress up in a _tutu_ and run around on the stage doing _dances_ and _cartwheels_ and sings off-tune… sort of whacked up like a fairy. Jason…" he shakes his head in disbelief. "You're a _fairy._"


End file.
